


Poppy seed

by TheMusicalCC



Series: Good Ending AU [2]
Category: The Real Ghostbusters
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic, F/M, Fix-it fic, Fluff, I don't even care, Kinda, this is basically self-servicing sugary smush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 12:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: Brown paper bags + Late night symptoms = Guess. Good Ending AU.





	Poppy seed

She briefly wonders, as she retches into the toilet, just what time it is. The street is almost silent, and the sky is still dark, but there is a chill in the air that makes her think  _morning_  instead of  _night_ , and she can't help but feel a little panicky at the word as bile and the contents of dinner spill from her mouth. Egon, always the light sleeper, up and on his feet since the first gag, is rubbing circles on her back with a hand that feels cool against the warmness of her sweaty skin, but every now and then he steps away, shuffling his feet in a way that is uncharacteristically insecure in him. Then all Janine can hear for a moment is an unbearable ringing in her ears and she squeezes eyes shut and vomits again and everything disappears but the string of curses she’s been repeating in her mind since the ordeal started.

_Morning or night_. Doesn’t matter, she knows, but it still obsesses her a bit. She spits a couple of times, trying to get rid of the taste and tries to breathe. Her throat hurts.

Eventually, the nausea passes and she rests her face against one of her arms and groans, shivering with such force that her body aches a bit. Egon places a hand on her nape, softly, soothing the damp hair and then slides it to her back and rubs comforting circles once again. It occurs to her that he's probably at a loss of what else he can do- comfort has never really been his thing, and for the time being he really can't do anything else. His repertoire for it probably consisted only of said back rubs and maybe the awkward mutter of ' _Ah..._ t _here, there, it's alright_ ' that reaches her ears every now and then, and by God he's planning on using it. It would be funny if she weren't feeling so particularly gross at the moment. She spits into the toilet another couple of times, finally free of the sensation behind her throat and her body relaxes, still shivering but much less violently. Minutes crawl by. Janine breaths in and out and hopes it's over, closing the lid and flushing.

“All...all done?” Egon asks, in his ' _I'm-out-of-my-element-heaven-help-me_ ' tone.

“Think so” Janine breathes in an oddly hoarse voice and then clears her throat and starts trying to get up. Egon is helping her in a second, and a good thing he is, too, because her legs are jelly and for a second she thinks she messed up and she's going to vomit again. It passes. He supports her as she goes to the sink for water and then mouthwash and tries to hide a yawn behind his knuckles as he touches the side of her face with the other hand. He's looking for a fever, she knows. Since she's drenched in cold sweat, it well may be that she has one and this is all some sort of infection or the flu.

But... 

“It may be better for you to skip your classes today” Egon drops, trying not to sound like he's telling her what to do even though it's exactly what he's doing. She gurgles for all answer, then spits into the sink, finally free of the aftertaste of sick.

“I'll be fine as soon as I sleep for a coupla' hours” she mumbles, wiping her mouth.

“Only if you mean a literal couple of hours” he squints his eyes towards the bedroom, trying to catch sight of the alarm clock's glowing red numbers even without his glasses.

“Wouldn’t be the first time”

“You won’t be any good in tomorrow’s lectures if you can’t pay attention”

“My first one is after ten” she begins to make her way for the bed, feet dragging “I’ll be fine”

He grunts but doesn’t insist. As she lays down and curls up around her turning stomach, he sits on his side of the bed and places a hand over her face again. Even in the dark, she can feel his eyes studying her.

“Fever?” she asks him, because while she feels sticky and chilled thanks to the sweat, she doesn't think it's quite that.

“You’re warm” he says, sounding unsure, and then moves to soothe her hair instead “Can I get you something? Tea?”

“Sleep”

He arranges the comforters around her and places a kiss over her hair, lying down.

“Just so you know, I still think you should rest tomorrow”

She reaches behind her for him and pokes his stomach teasingly.

“Just so you know- that is very sweet of you but I’m not changing my mind”

“I figured as much” he reaches to place a hand over her waist “Goodnight”

“Night”

* * *

She hesitates in front of the pharmacy on her way home and ends up entering, The brown paper bag her purchase is wrapped in almost makes her laugh in the train every time she sets eyes on it, thinking of all the times Peter ‘Snuck’ booze into the firehouse via the same wrapper. In her opinion, brown paper bags immediately catch the eye, which kind of eliminates the original purpose of being discreet. She thinks of this again as she walks into the firehouse and Slimer starts watering in the mouth at the sight of the bag, and this time she does laugh, even as she shushes him away from the contents and starts up the stairs.

“What is so funny?” comes Egon’s voice from the computer bench he’s settled there. The screen is flashing with white words on a black background, he keeps his eyes on it and his tone tells he’s focused on whatever he’s doing. She drops her book-case on the sofa and goes to him, wrapping arms around his neck.

“I was remembering when Peter thought no one noticed he was re-stocking his stash”

He hums in amusement.

“He was never one for subtlety, I’m afraid- what did you get?”

She hesitates for two seconds, then takes the plunge, removing her arms from around him.

“A pregnancy test”

“Ah” it takes him a couple of seconds, but when he realizes what she’s just said, he starts almost comically and gets to his feet, the chair spinning madly in his wake “ _Waitwhat_?”

She takes the box out from the paper bag -seriously, who on earth thinks those things are discreet? The ruffling can be heard all the way to Brooklyn- and shows it to him. His jaw goes slack and his eyes wide and he scans her face, perhaps expecting some sort of punchline.

“I… are you-?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t need this”

“Yes, of course, but-” realization dawns on his expression, he’s thinking about little things he wouldn’t otherwise remember. She’s been having aches, her appetite has been unstable, she’s been short on breath. And then, there was the previous night. He swallows “May I see that?” she hands the box to him and he paces a bit, eyes unmoving over the letters “How- how long have you been having symptoms?”

“Not sure. Maybe a month” he runs a hand through his hair “Which is why I think it might be a good time to know for sure”

“Blood tests are more reliable” 

“Yeah, OK, but I can’t exactly do those myself”

“Yes, well…” he slows down to a halt on his pacing and runs a hand through his hair again “Can… can you take it now? Right now?”

“It’s the idea” she reaches for the box and has to tug it out of his hand, and takes a deep, deep breath, heading for the bathroom. Egon follows almost mechanically. His expression is somewhere between frightened and contemplating. 

“Do you need me to-?”

“I got this” she assures. He looks ready to follow her into the bathroom, so she halts at the entrance and turns to him to throw him what she hopes is a reassuring smile “Here goes nothing”

“I’ll be right here if you need anything”

“OK”

* * *

 

She’s taking too long, Egon decides, switching his weight, and he looks at his watch. It’s been twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The instructions said to wait for ten minutes- surely she had to be done by now. He can barely resist the impulse of knocking on the door to ask if everything’s alright- then he remembers every box comes with two tubes. He can vaguely recall reading somewhere that false positives are rare, but still, most brands recommended taking both for confirmation. He’s running numbers in his head as it usually helps him stay calm. Today, the numbers refuse to make sense and it’s more nerve-wracking than anything. All he can think of is how much he feels like every added second drags like a snail and it’s unbearable-

“How are you holding up out there?” comes Janine’s voice from across the closed door. He lets the tense line of his shoulders sag a bit and rests his back against the door, breathing. She sounds anxious, but not in a way that spells trouble.

“I’m fine” he lies “And you?”

“Fine” sounds like a lie too. He can tell just from her voice that she’s hugging herself the way she does whenever she’s stressed “Wish these damn things would hurry up”

“I share the sentiment”

A silence stretches between them for a moment.

“Do you want tea?” he offers, he needs to do something with his hands or he will go crazy.

“Maybe later”

“Understood” he eyes around for something to do and an old PKE meter catches his eye, so he grabs it and turns it on. The hum as it comes alive is almost soothing. He calibers it for the surroundings expertly and is pleased to see only Slimer’s energy trace register in it, then he calibers it for his own biorythm. The readings indicate his pulse to be racing. He calibrates it for Janine next and her heartbeat is as accelerated as his own, if he’s quiet enough, he can hear her naked footballs inside. Another quick glance to his watch reveals only another minute has gone by and he stiffles a curse. 

“Are you nervous?” Janine asks. He hears her rest her back against the door.

“Very” he’s trembling, although it feels a bit like low sugar. He fleetingly wonders if he should get a twinkie, though his stomach is so busy twisting into knots that he’s not sure he can have anything just now.

“It’s good news in any case, right?” she sounds a bit panicky.

“Yes” he gulps. It  _is_  good news, but it’s also  _big_  news, and it’s possibly why his hands feel damp with sweat as he checks his watch again “Are you taking the time?”

“Yeah, it’s almost up- what if it’s a false alarm?” he has to consider it for a minute. Part of him is sure it’s not the case, but if it where… he’s surprised by how much the thought disappoints him. He must want children more than he’d realized.

“Then we try again”

“I didn’t know we were trying” she teases. He feels his ears warm at the comment.

“Ahem, yes, well, we weren’t  _actively_ trying, but… I figured, maybe, um, if you- you’re OK with it” he gulps again “Maybe it’s a good time to start” when she doesn’t reply, he approaches the door again “Janine?”

The door opens just as he’s about to knock and her face is ashen- still, her eyes are glistening. She holds both tubes in her hand.

“Positive” Egon looks at her in stunned bewilderment for a moment, unable to process what she just said “Egon, it’s positive. Both say positive” her voice gets shrill by the end of the second sentence. Only then does it process. Egon rushes to her, hugging her tight to spin her in the air and she squeals.

“Sorry!” he says, setting her down immediately, looking her up and down to make sure he didn’t hurt her or anything “I’m sorry, I’m- It’s just-”

She tugs him down to her by the front of his shirt and kisses him on the corner of the mouth.

“I’m excited too”

He can’t feel his face, but he can tell he’s mirroring her smile. His mind is racing a million miles per hour. Positive. Pregnant, Janine’s pregnant. With  _his_  baby.  _Egads_.

“You will need- we will need vitamins-” he releases her to pace a bit. If he doesn’t let a bit of energy out, he will blow up, or at least that’s how it feels at the time “Er, supplements. Folic acid and...and… a doctor, we need to take you to a doctor” he checks his watch again, realizing that for all the times he’s looked at it, he’s forgotten to note what time it actually is “First thing tomorrow, if possible, the Queens Mercy owes us a couple of favors”

“Or, let me call my doctor and make an appointment, like the rest of the world” she sounds amused.

“I- well, I guess it’s-” another thought crosses his mind “We will require to read on the matter- I believe I can borrow some books from Winston, he bought a good selection when Tiyah...” he trails off and straightens his back, a though just occurring to him “Oh.  _Oh_ , the guys, we have to tell them. And my mother. And  _your_  mother-” he interrupts both the pacing and the stammering and goes back to her “Perhaps… perhaps it would be wise to put your Masters Degree on hold for now, you’ll need rest, and stress will be-”

“Not happening” she deflects.

“It will be very tolling on you” she shrugs.

“I’ll figure something out”

“As long as you don’t over-work yourself” he sighs, knowing arguing won't do anything if she's made up her mind.

“I won’t" she stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek this time "Promise” 

“H-how far along do you think…?”

“Aw, hell- I’ve no idea” she ponders it “Four weeks, maybe five? I can’t know for sure until I see my doctor” his hands hesitate near her stomach so she grabs one of them and places it over it, right under her navel. His Adam’s apple wobbles and his other hand joins on the other side of her lower stomach.

“Poppy seed” he mumbles dazedly.

“Hm?”

“At this stage, a fetus is roughly the size of a poppy seed” he tries to remember more on the matter but it has never been of his interest and nothing comes up. Janine seems delighted all the same.

“Look at that- you’re not half as clueless about it as I thought you would be”

“I know next to nothing” he shakes his head, dismissive “It also occurs to me that my knowledge on the matter of babies is severely lacking”

“We have time” she reminds him “You don’t have to know  _everything_  right away, you know”

His hands slide around her and he brings her close. His lips brush against her temple. His heart is beating so fast that it feels like it’s dancing inside his chest. 

“Janine, you know that I… struggle with showing it but- I’m very happy.  _So_  happy”

She rests her head against his chest and he’s certain she can hear his heartbeat.

“I know” 

**Author's Note:**

> I am not even a little sorry about this.
> 
> ((The Good Ending AU is my indulgent AU idea where Janine and Egon do get together, eventually married and with a child after the end of The Real Ghostbusters but before the beginning of Extreme Ghostbusters.))


End file.
